Religious freedom laws should not be a basis for muzzling free speech

One person’s right is often a limitation of another person’s rights.

The challenge in legislation to protect religious freedoms is to limit it to just that — not a base for zealots to muzzle and persecute other people’s freedom of speech as we have seen with section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

One person’s right is often a limitation of another person’s rights, so any legislation should contain a very clear limitation on its use to protect freedom of religion as well as protect the freedom of those with other views.

Neville Lindsay, Sinnamon Park, Qld

Amanda Stoker exposes some key issues on freedom of religion but fails to address them in a decisive manner (“Secularism would stifle faith if Labor has its way”, 13/12). She wrote: “If religious teachings are forced to abide by the secular morality of the state, it is no longer free but licensed.”

While that might be true, without it I am unable to be free from religion and consequently could be affected by people being encouraged to believe that things that could be harmful to me are OK. Too often, people fail to recognise the implications for their version of religious freedom. For instance, shouldn’t secular morality forbid the encouragement by extremist Muslims to preach that infidels should be killed, or that wives may be subjugated by their husbands? If you aren’t going to permit that, why should other religious orders be free to shape malleable young minds in schools? Religious freedom shouldn’t be allowed to divide society. Religion needs constant reformation, and secular morality imposed through federal laws is a way of achieving that.

Roger Bridgland, West Hobart, Tas

Population nonsense

Facts indicate that recent articles and letters suggesting the world’s population is too high and growing too fast are just alarmist nonsense.

World Bank data shows that world fertility rates dropped more than 50 per cent from 5.0 in 1960 to 2.4 in 2016. Australia’s dropped from 3.5 to 1.8 and is now the same as the US and Britain. China’s dropped from 5.7 in 1960 to 1.6 in 2016; India from 5.9 to 2.3; Indonesia from 5.7 to 2.4. Therefore world population growth is decelerating and this trend will continue throughout this century. It is expected to grow by only 2 billion to 2050 and just a further 1.4 billion to 2100.

The world produces enough food to sustain the projected population in 2050. With continued growth in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the world will easily expand food production to cater for its population in 2100.

Brent Walker, Killcare, NSW

EU exposed

The farce of Brexit is just another example of the error by the EU when a simple free trade agreement would have sufficed. Sovereign nations are controlled by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels depriving member nations of any national pride and the ability to set their own laws. Britain’s decision to leave exposes the fallacy of the concept and shows up the vindictiveness of the EU and its remaining members, especially France and Germany.

France is nearly bankrupt and needed Britain’s help to survive, as is Spain, Italy and Greece.

Jeff Stokes, Largs Bay, SA

Drug options

Greg Angelo’s solution to the drug problem is just more of the same, including turning more people into convicted criminals (Letters, 13/12).

The problem is never going to go away even if you lock users up. Our options are, create more criminals and let our children die, or we can find ways to limit the damage that drugs do. Pill testers will not be responsible if a drug user chooses to take a pill. They do not certify any drugs as safe. They merely give the user more information on the drug so that they might make a better informed decision. This issue seems like a no-brainer to me, and I imagine it would be even more so for those with children.

Mitchell Beston, Woy Woy, NSW